Game Design, BFA (Boston)

The Bachelor of Fine Arts in Game Design is designed to provide students with the skills to communicate ideas and emotions through interactive media. The focus of the BFA degree is exploring games as an aesthetic and expressive form through critical analysis and creative, reflective practice. Anticipating emerging trends in the video and analog game industries—including broader platforms, audiences, and distribution channels—students will be oriented toward developing games and playful media in an independent creative context. The curriculum is geared to cultivate students’ unique creative voices through courses that apply theoretical analysis to game-development practices across a range of media. Students are exposed to a wide variety of genres and contexts, as well as alternative ways of thinking about games content, platforms, and asset production.

Complete all courses listed below unless otherwise indicated. Also complete any corequisite labs, recitations, clinicals, or tools courses where specified and complete any additional courses needed beyond specific college and major requirements to satisfy graduation credit requirements.

Universitywide Requirements

All undergraduate students are required to complete the Universitywide Requirements.

NUpath Requirements

All undergraduate students are required to complete the NUpath Requirements.

NUpath requirements Creative Expression/Innovation (EI), Formal and Quantitative Reasoning (FQ), and Analyzing/Using Data (AD) are met through the major course requirements. All other NUpath requirements must be met through electives.

Required Courses

Course List

Code	Title	Hours
Art and Design at Northeastern
ARTF 1000	Art and Design at Northeastern	1
Game Studies
GAME 1110	Games and Society	4
GAME 2650	Introduction to Game Research Methods	4
Game Design
GAME 2500	Foundations of Game Design	4
GAME 2950	Game Studio	4
GAME 3700	Rapid Idea Prototyping for Games	4
Game Development
ARTG 2262 and ARTG 2263	Prototyping with Code and Lab for ARTG 2262	4
GAME 2010	The Business of Games	4
GAME 3300	Game Interface Design	4
GAME 3400	Level Design and Game Architecture	4
GAME 3800	Game Concept Development	4
Game Aesthetics
ARTD 2370 and ARTD 2371	Animation Basics and Animation Tools	5
ARTF 1220	Elements of Visual Composition	2
ARTF 1240	Making with Video, Sound, and Animation	2
Complete 4 semester hours of ARTF coursework not applied to other requirements of this program		4
Capstone
A grade of C or higher is required:
GAME 4700	Game Design Capstone	4

Electives

Course List

Code	Title	Hours
Game Design and Development
Complete 12 semester hours of the following as long as prerequisites have been met:		12
GAME 1850	Experimental Game Design
GAME 2991	Research in Game Design
GAME 4000	Topics in Game Design
GAME 4460	Generative Game Design
GAME 4600	Game Production
Game Aesthetics and Critical Play
Complete 12 semester hours from the following as long as prerequisites have been met:		12
GAME 2355	Narrative for Games
GAME 2750	Games Criticism and Theory
GAME 2755	Games and Social Justice
GAME 4155	Designing Imaginary Worlds
Art + Design
Complete 8 semester hours from the following as long as prerequisites have been met:		8
ARTD 1001 and ARTD 1002	Media Art, Culture, and Social Justice and Seminar for ARTD 1001
ARTD 2000	Introduction to Immersive Media
ARTD 3000	Topics in Media Arts
ARTD 3470	Animation 1
ARTD 3472	Character Design for Animation
ARTD 3473	Animation for Games
ARTG 3250	Physical Computing
EXRE 5010 and EXRE 5011	Immersive Media: Extended Realities (XR) History, Theory, and Impact and Seminar for EXRE 5010
EXRE 5020	Developing Extended Realities (XR)
EXRE 5030	Designing Extended Realities (XR)
Art History
Complete 4 semester hours of ARTH courses.		4

Game Design Major Credit/GPA Requirement

Complete 94 semester hours for the major with a 2.000 GPA.

Program Requirement

130 total semester hours required